“The main power of the prayer and the entire appetitive power of the soul lies in the cleansing of the heart by means of noetic prayer. What does the Lord say? “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” He does not say “Blessed are those who see visions and revelations.” So we should not rejoice in these things even if they are from God. But one should rejoice when one sees that the nous has found the heart and remained inside it. Then the entire body is at peace, the soul is calmed, the heart leaps, the nous illuminates its powers and tears run like a stream. The evil one is able to transform everything but these things that we are talking about now he cannot imitate.”
Elder Joseph
~Monastic Wisdom

“When someone calls to sleep his self accusing thoughts he represses his conscience and when one goes to sleep and refuses to acknowledge these self accusations from his conscience for a long period of time he creates a another, his own à la carte conscience that is a faulty conscience. Such a person has no inner peace because a faulty conscience cannot bring about inner peace. You see even when someone makes a mistake and another person tells him “It’s not your fault, why are you worried?”, or, even if he pretends not to have noticed his mistake again he will not find any inner peace. There are some who go to consult certain gurus and so on and when they realize that things are not going well they come to ask me. And while I tell them something to help them they insist, “No, what I believe is correct.” But if what you believe is correct then why do you come and ask me? Even though they are not at peace with what is wrong they insist and keep on trying to find a false peace one way or another but they cannot find true peace.”
Elder Paisios
~Spiritual Struggle

“You’re embarrassed to say the prayer out loud because you have been a monk for so many years? In other words you think that you will appear to others to be at a lower spiritual level by saying it out loud since that is what beginners do? And you’re trying to pass yourself off as an advanced veteran? Shame on you! You have nothing but vainglory and pride. What is truly embarrassing is when we do not say they prayer when our mind wanders here and there and when our mouth doesn’t stop babbling. Isn’t that shameful? Yes that is shameful in the eyes of both God and man.”
Elder Joseph
~My Elder Joseph

“You must see your Elder as Christ. Don’t cause him distress. You’ve distressed your Elder? You’ve distressed Christ. The monk under obedience is a blank sheet of paper. There is nothing there for the devil to interrogate him about. The obedient disciple has no temptations because the Elder takes them on. The value of the Elder cannot be matched by the value of the whole world or even of the entire Holy Mountain.”
Elder Ephraim of Katounakia
~Obedience is Life

“… Open the eyes of your soul and see what exists beyond this life. Men of the world loved the world because they have not yet discovered its bitterness. They are still blind in soul and do not see what is hiding behind his fleeting joy. The noetic light is not yet come to them, the day of salvation has not yet dawned upon them. But you who have seen and heard so much, must realize that the pleasure from temporal things passes away like a shadow.”
Elder Joseph
~Monastic Wisdom

“Speaking of His second coming of Christ calls all people either hosts or servants. In both cases He warns all to expect Him in wakefulness and vigilance, the Lord of Glory and the Judge of the world. Every man is the host and the master of the spiritual treasure which is stored within his soul. As such that each host keeps his inner treasure with at least as much care as a good host would put into keeping his worldly treasure. “If the good man of the house had known it would watch the thief would come he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken up” (Matthew 24). But since he does not know when that time is he has to keep watch at all times day and night. Likewise we have to keep our souls at all times from demons, evil and invisible thieves, so they do not plunder our treasure and leave are so empty and desolate on the day of Christ’s coming.”
St Nikolai Velimirovich
~Missionary Letters #2

“Prayer of the heart is prayed only by a person who has attracted the grace of God. It mustn’t be done with the thought “I’ll learn it, I’ll do it, I’ll acquire it,” because in this way we may be led to egotism and pride. Not only experience and genuine desire but also wisdom, care and prudence are required if our prayer is to be pure and pleasing to God. A single seductive thought, “I have really made progress” for example brings everything to naught. Why should we be proud? We have nothing that is our own. These are very delicate matters.”
Elder Porphyrios
~Wounded by Love

“Repentance is a baptism of tears. Through repentance man is rebaptized, reborn. Through his denial the Apostle Peter betrayed Christ in a way but because he wept bitterly he received forgiveness for his fall. In other words his sincere repentance washed him clean again. You see God first created the earth He sees and all creation and then took from the dust of the earth and created man. Man is firstborn of the flesh and that in Baptism he is reborn spiritually through water, a creation of God and through the Uncreated Divine Grace of the Holy Spirit – through water and the Spirit – he becomes a new man.”
Elder Paisios
~Spiritual Struggle

“The grace of God gives help, comfort and consolation to all believers who live according to their conscience. He gives to each according to what he requires to strengthen or console him. These gifts are exceptional without repetition or continuation and belong to the overall general providence of God by which He sustains His creatures. But to those who are strong in their faith, who for love of God and with firm faith in Him have rejected everything and denied even nature itself exercising detailed vigilance in the strict keeping of His commandments – to these people divine providence does not appear exceptionally or in an undefined way in order to offer some consolation or save them from some particular situation that befalls them. It attends them with a system of motherly guardianship operating in a variety of ways.”
Elder Joseph
~Elder Joseph the Hesychast

“At night…the brothers retreated to rest and would wake two hours before the service to carry out their set prayer room on their own. The Abbot however straight after Compline had to complete whatever administrative responsibilities were left and to confess whoever was waiting for him: either pilgrims or monks from various other dwellings. Most of the time he went without sleeping at all. He heard confessions until it was time for the service. He then went to the service, liturgized, but before retired to his cell again he heard someone’s confession, saw someone else for guidance and was busy with them for quite a while. As soon as he went to rest a little the refrectory monk knocked on the door, “Elder it’s time for the meal, open so that I can make a reverence.”
Elder Haralambos (lifestyle)
~Abbot Haralambos Dionysiatis